HANOVER, N.H.--The two most important players for the Harvard men's basketball team in its win Monday over Dartmouth were the two starters that scored the fewest points.

The defensive play of junior swingman Mike Scott and senior center Chris Grancio was the difference in Harvard's 64-56 win, holding Dartmouth stars Sea Lonergan and Brian Gilpin to a combined 25 points on 10-25 shooting. Not terrible numbers, but also not enough to lead their team to victory.

After making its first six three-pointers, Harvard held a seven-point lead at halftime, 36-29. In the second half, the Crimson lost its scoring touch but kept up the defensive pressure and made its free throws in the stretch to gain the win.

For Harvard (7-6, 1-1 Ivy), the win erases the memory of December's 69-60 loss at home to the Big Green and ended the team's three-game losing streak. It also keeps the Crimson alive for an Ivy League title.

"The key was us getting off to that good start, there's no question about that," Harvard coach Frank Sullivan said. "I think that gave us a little bit of confidence going into the second half. Then we had that drought where we couldn't score for a significant period of time, and we just got really lucky playing adequate defense ourselves. Specifically, Mike Scott came up with a couple steals that kind of propelled us."

This was Scott's first legitimate good game of the year. Early in December, a bad case of the flu severely limited his playing time for more than a week. When Scott returned, he found that his shooting touch had left him. At times, he air-balled free throws in the games over winter break.

But on Monday, he captured two steals in the tight moments of the second half, both on passes to Lonergan. On one, Scott layed in a basket, while on the other Lonergan practically tackled him to prevent a fast break. Scott also pulled down six rebounds, five of which were in the second half, and was four-for-four on free throws, all of which came in the last minute.

These plays were important because the Harvard offense was not able to put the game away. After the Crimson's first-half exploits, in which the team shot 48 percent from the field and led by as much as 12, the Big Green threw in some zone defenses and was able to stifle the visitors.

"They adapt well," said senior power forward Kyle Snowden (18 points, nine rebounds). "Coming out in the second half, they threw a couple wrinkles at us defensively. It caught us back on our heels a little bit, but we kind of persevered and tried not to let it rattle us."

Snowden was Harvard's offensive force early in the second half, as both teams started going to their big men more often. But while Snowden hit his first four shots of the half, Dartmouth's Gilpin could never totally shake off Grancio and get into any type of groove, even though he had a four-inch height advantage.

Grancio only scored five points and picked up one rebound and four fouls, but those were not areas that Sullivan was concerned with.

"It's a very tiresome thing to guard Brian Gilpin," Sullivan said. "He's an unusual guy because of his reach and because of his size.... We were willing to concede [Grancio's] three-point shooting altogether to play better defense tonight."

At times in the second half, it looked as though Dartmouth might be able to catch up to Harvard. The Big Green's Kenny Mitchell hit two three-pointers within a 1:19 span, cutting the Harvard lead from 11 to seven, but after Grancio hit a jumper neither team scored for almost five minutes. Then, with 48 seconds left, a Mitchell shot cut the lead to six, but Scott and sophomore point guard Tim Hill hit all of their ensuing free throws to ice the game.

Notes

In Harvard's early three-point barrage, one of the unlikely participants was Snowden. Oftentimes in Harvard's offense, he rotates to catch a pass at the top of the key, but until this year, he hasn't taken the shot. But Snowden hit threes Monday and in Harvard's loss to Hampton on December 28.

"When Kyle stepped out in the first half, I couldn't believe he took it," said Gilpin, who covered Snowden for most of the night. "I had cheated down a little much."

Besides Scott, captain Dave Demian and senior Dave Weaver also played well for extended portions on Monday. Demian hit four of seven shots for 11 points, while Weaver scored six and caught six rebounds in 17 minutes.

This weekend, Harvard will host Columbia on Friday and Cornell on Saturday at Lavietes Pavilion. Harvard  64 Dartmouth  56

HARVARD, 64-56 at Hanover, N.H. Harvard  36  28  --  64 Dartmouth  29  27  --  56

HARVARD: Demian 4-7 2-2 11; Hill 6-12 2-2 16; Scott 2-7 4-4 8; Snowden 7-16 3-4 18; Weaver 2-5 0-0 6; Grancio 2-5 1-2 5. TOTALS 23-56 12-14 64.

DARTMOUTH: Mitchell 4-9 2-4 12; Halas 5-12 0-0 13; Lonergan 5-11 2-3 13; Newsome 0-1 0-0 0; Stanton 1-5 0-0 2; Fisher 0-3 0-0 0; Gee 2-4 0-0 4; Palmer 0-1 0-0 0; Gilpin 5-14 2-2 12. TOTALS: 22-60 6-9 56.